Support cylinder for thermal processing chamber

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the disclosure generally relate to a support cylinder used in a thermal process chamber. In one embodiment, the support cylinder comprises a ring body having an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface, wherein the ring body comprises an opaque quartz glass material and wherein the ring body is coated with an optical transparent layer. The optical transparent layer has a coefficient of thermal expansion that is substantially matched or similar to the opaque quartz glass material to reduce thermal expansion mismatch that may cause thermal stress under high thermal loads. In one example, the opaque quartz glass material is synthetic black quartz and the optical transparent layer comprises a clear fused quartz material.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit of U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 61/866,379, filed Aug. 15, 2013, which is herein incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF

1. Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a wafersupport cylinder used in a thermal process chamber.

2. Description of the Related Art

In many semiconductor device manufacturing processes, the required highlevels of device performance, yield, and process repeatability can onlybe achieved if the temperature of the substrate (e.g., a semiconductorwafer) is tightly monitored and controlled during processing of thesubstrate. Rapid thermal processing (RTP), for example, is used forseveral different fabrication processes, including rapid thermalannealing (RTA), rapid thermal cleaning (RTC), rapid thermal chemicalvapor deposition (RTCVD), rapid thermal oxidation (RTO), and rapidthermal nitridation (RTN).

In a RTP chamber, for example, the substrate may be supported on itsperiphery by an edge of a substrate support ring that extends inwardlyfrom the chamber wall and surrounds a periphery of the substrate. Thesubstrate support ring is rested on a rotatable tubular support cylinderwhich rotates the substrate support ring and the supported substrate tomaximize substrate temperature uniformity during processing. The supportcylinder is made of opaque quartz to provide light shielding propertiesand low thermal conductivity such that heat from the processing areaand/or the heating source is substantially attenuated near the supportcylinder. The support cylinder is typically coated with a polysiliconlayer to render it opaque to radiation in the frequency range used fortemperature measurements of the substrate.

However, it has been observed that mismatch in thermal expansioncoefficients of polysilicon layer and opaque quartz under hightemperatures can cause cracking in the polysilicon layer and/or in thevicinity of the interface between the polysilicon layer and the opaquequartz. Such cracking can be detrimental to the substrate because thecracks may propagate into the underlying quartz which makes thepolysilicon layer and a portion of the underlying quartz adhered to thepolysilicon layer to peel after thermal cycling. The peeling of thepolysilicon layer and the quartz pieces not only compromises opacity ofthe support cylinder but also contaminates the process chamber and thesubstrate with particles.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved support cylinder withenhanced light shielding properties that prevents contamination of theprocess chamber and the substrate during thermal processing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a supportcylinder used in a thermal process chamber. In one embodiment, thesupport cylinder comprises a ring body having an inner peripheralsurface and an outer peripheral surface parallel to the inner peripheralsurface, and a planar surface extending radially from the outerperipheral surface to the inner peripheral surface, wherein the ringbody comprises an opaque quartz glass material and the ring body iscoated with an optical transparent layer. The optical transparent layerhas a coefficient of thermal expansion that is substantially matched orsimilar to the opaque quartz glass material to reduce thermal expansionmismatch that may cause thermal stress under high thermal loads. In oneexample, the opaque quartz glass material is synthetic black quartz andthe optical transparent layer comprises a clear fused quartz material.

In another embodiment, a method of processing a ring body used in athermal processing chamber is provided. The method includes forming anoptical transparent layer on a ring body comprising an opaque quartzglass material, wherein the ring body has an inner peripheral surface,an outer peripheral surface, and a planar surface extending radiallyfrom the outer peripheral surface to the inner peripheral surface, andcoating at least a portion of the ring body with an optical transparentlayer having a refractive index of about 1.5.

In yet another embodiment, a method of processing a substrate in athermal processing chamber is provided. The method includes positioninga ring body radially inward of an inner circumferential surface of thethermal processing chamber, wherein the ring body comprises an opaquequartz glass material and has an optical transparent layer formedthereon, and wherein the ring body has an inner peripheral surface, anouter peripheral surface, and a planar surface extending radially fromthe inner peripheral surface to the outer peripheral surface, andsupporting a support ring by the planar surface of the ring body,wherein the support ring has an edge lip extending radially inwardlyfrom a surface of the support ring to support a periphery of asemiconductor substrate from a back side of the semiconductor substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the presentdisclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description ofthe disclosure, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference toembodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Itis to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate onlytypical embodiments of this disclosure and are therefore not to beconsidered limiting of its scope, for the disclosure may admit to otherequally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a cross-sectional view of a rapidthermal processing chamber.

FIG. 2A is a schematic top view of a support cylinder that may be usedin place of the support cylinder of FIG. 1 according to one embodimentof the disclosure.

FIG. 2B is a sectional view of the support cylinder taking along theline 2B-2B of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2C is an enlarged view of a portion “2C” of the support cylindershown in FIG. 2B.

FIG. 3 depicts a schematic side view of a portion of the supportcylinder shown in FIG. 2B according to one embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts a schematic side view of a portion of the supportcylinder shown in FIG. 3 using a reflective coating layer according toanother embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts a schematic side view of a portion of the supportcylinder shown in FIG. 3 according to yet another embodiment of thedisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a supportcylinder used in a thermal process chamber. The substrate to bethermally processed is supported on its periphery by a support ring. Thesupport ring extends radially inwardly along the inner circumferentialsurfaces of the process chamber and surrounds a periphery of thesubstrate. The support ring has an edge lip extending radially inwardlyfrom a surface of the support ring to support the periphery of thesubstrate from the back side. The support ring has a bottom coupling toa support cylinder. The support cylinder comprises a ring body having aninner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface. The outerperipheral surface is further away from a central longitudinal axis ofthe support cylinder than the inner peripheral surface. The supportcylinder may be made of a synthetic black quartz material which isopaque to infrared radiation. In one embodiment, the support cylinder iscoated with a clear fused quartz which has high emissivity in the farinfrared region. As the clear fused quartz and the underlying syntheticblack quartz are all quartz components having similar coefficient ofthermal expansion, the inventive support cylinder does not have particlecontamination issues due to coefficient of thermal expansion mismatchbetween an opaque quartz and a polysilicon layer coated thereon, aswould normally be seen in the conventional support cylinder. Variousembodiments of the support cylinder are discussed in further detailbelow.

Exemplary Rapid Thermal Processing Chamber

FIG. 1 schematically depicts a cross-sectional view of a rapid thermalprocessing chamber 10. Examples of a suitable RTP chamber may includeRADIANCE® RTP or CENTURA® RTP chamber, available from Applied Materials,Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. While the processing chamber 10 shows a topheating configuration (i.e., heating lamps provided relatively above thesubstrate), it is contemplated that a bottom heating configuration(i.e., heating lamps provided relatively below the substrate) may alsobe utilized to benefit from the present disclosure. A substrate 12, forexample, a semiconductor substrate such as a silicon substrate, to bethermally processed is passed through the valve or access port 13 intothe process area 18 of the processing chamber 10. The substrate 12 issupported on its periphery by an annular support ring 14. An edge lip 15extends inward of the annular support ring 14 and contacts a portion ofthe backside of the substrate 12. The substrate may be oriented suchthat processed features 16 already formed in a front surface of thesubstrate 12 face upwardly toward a process area 18 defined on its upperside by a transparent quartz window 20. The front surface of thesubstrate 12 is facing toward the array of lamps 26. In someembodiments, the front surface of the substrate 12 with the processedfeatured formed thereon may face away from the array of lamps 26, i.e.,facing towards the pyrometers 40. Contrary to the schematicillustration, the features 16 for the most part do not projectsubstantial distances beyond the front surface of the substrate 12 butconstitute patterning within and near the plane of the front surface.

A plurality of lift pins 22, such as three lift pins, may be raised andlowered to support the back side of the substrate 12 when the substrateis handed between a paddle or robot blade (not shown) bringing thesubstrate into the processing chamber and onto the support ring 14. Aradiant heating apparatus 24 is positioned above the window 20 andconfigured to direct radiant energy toward the substrate 12 through thewindow 20. In the processing chamber 10, the radiant heating apparatusmay include a large number, 409 being an exemplary number, ofhigh-intensity tungsten-halogen lamps 26 positioned in respectivereflective tubes 27 arranged in a hexagonal close-packed array above thewindow 20. The array of lamps 26 is sometimes referred to as thelamphead. However, it is contemplated that other radiant heatingapparatus may be substituted. Generally, these involve resistive heatingto quickly ramp up the temperature of the radiant source. Examples ofsuitable lamps include mercury vapor lamps having an envelope of glassor silica surrounding a filament and flash lamps which comprise anenvelope of glass or silica surrounding a gas such as xenon, whichprovides a heat source when the gas is energized. As used herein, theterm lamp is intended to cover lamps including an envelope thatsurrounds a heat source. The “heat source” of a lamp refers to amaterial or element that can increase the temperature of the substrate,for example, a filament or gas that can be energized, or a solid regionof a material that emits radiation such as a LED or solid state lasersand laser diodes.

As used herein, rapid thermal processing or RTP refers to an apparatusor a process capable of uniformly heating a substrate at rates of about50° C./second and higher, for example, at rates of about 100° C./secondto 150° C./second, and about 200° C./second to 400° C./second. Typicalramp-down (cooling) rates in RTP chambers are in the range of about 80°C./second to 150° C./second. Some processes performed in RTP chambersrequire variations in temperature across the substrate of less than afew degrees Celsius. Thus, an RTP chamber must include a lamp or othersuitable heating system and heating system control capable of heating atrate of up to about 100° C./second to 150° C./second, and about 200°C./second to 400° C./second, distinguishing rapid thermal processingchambers from other types of thermal chambers that do not have a heatingsystem and heating control system capable of rapidly heating at theserates. An RTP chamber with such a heating control system may anneal asample in less than 5 seconds, for example, less than 1 second, and insome embodiments, milliseconds.

It is important to control the temperature across the substrate 12 to aclosely defined temperature uniform across the substrate 12. One passivemeans of improving the uniformity may include a reflector 28 disposedbeneath the substrate 12. The reflector 28 extends parallel to and overan area greater than the substrate 12. The reflector 28 efficientlyreflects heat radiation emitted from the substrate 12 back toward thesubstrate 12 to enhance the apparent emissivity of the substrate 12. Thespacing between the substrate 12 and the reflector 28 may be betweenabout 3 mm to 9 mm, and the aspect ratio of the width to the thicknessof the cavity is advantageously greater than 20. The top of reflector28, which may be made of aluminum and has a highly reflective surfacecoating or multi-layer dielectric interference mirror, and the back sideof the substrate 12 form a reflecting cavity for enhancing the effectiveemissivity of the substrate, thereby improving the accuracy oftemperature measurement. In certain embodiments, the reflector 28 mayhave a more irregular surface or have a black or other colored surfaceto more closely resemble a black-body wall. The reflector 28 may bedeposited on a second wall 53, which is a water-cooled base made ofmetal to heat sink excess radiation from the substrate, especiallyduring cool down. Accordingly, the process area of the processingchamber 10 has at least two substantially parallel walls, of which afirst is a window 20, made of a material being transparent to radiationsuch as quartz, and the second wall 53 which is substantially parallelto the first wall and made of metal significantly not transparent.

One way of improving the uniformity includes supporting the support ring14 on a rotatable support cylinder 30 that is disposed radially inwardof the inner circumferential surfaces 60 of the processing chamber 10.The support cylinder 30 is magnetically coupled to a rotatable flange 32positioned outside the processing chamber 10. A motor (not shown)rotates the flange 32 and hence rotates the substrate about its center34, which is also the centerline of the generally symmetric chamber.Alternatively, the bottom of the support cylinder 30 may be magneticallylevitated cylinder held in place by magnets disposed in the rotatableflange 32 and rotated by rotating magnetic field in the rotatable flange32 from coils in the rotatable flange 32.

Another way of improving the uniformity divides the lamps 26 into zonesarranged generally ring-like about the central axis 34. Controlcircuitry varies the voltage delivered to the lamps 26 in the differentzones to thereby tailor the radial distribution of radiant energy.Dynamic control of the zoned heating is affected by, one or a pluralityof pyrometers 40 coupled through one or more optical light pipes 42positioned to face the back side of the substrate 12 through aperturesin the reflector 28 to measure the temperature across a radius of therotating substrate 12. The light pipes 42 may be formed of variousstructures including sapphire, metal, and silica fiber. A computerizedcontroller 44 receives the outputs of the pyrometers 40 and accordinglycontrols the voltages supplied to the different rings of lamps 26 tothereby dynamically control the radiant heating intensity and patternduring the processing. Pyrometers generally measure light intensity in anarrow wavelength bandwidth of, for example, 40 nm in a range betweenabout 700 to 1000 nm. The controller 44 or other instrumentationconverts the light intensity to a temperature through the well-knownPlanck distribution of the spectral distribution of light intensityradiating from a black-body held at that temperature. Pyrometry,however, is affected by the emissivity of the portion of the substrate12 being scanned. Emissivity ∈ can vary between 1 for a black body to 0for a perfect reflector and thus is an inverse measure of thereflectivity R=1−∈ of the substrate back side. While the back surface ofa substrate is typically uniform so that uniform emissivity is expected,the backside composition may vary depending upon prior processing. Thepyrometry can be improved by further including a emissometer tooptically probe the substrate to measure the emissivity or reflectanceof the portion of the substrate it is facing in the relevant wavelengthrange and the control algorithm within the controller 44 to include themeasured emissivity.

Exemplary Support Cylinder

FIG. 2A is a schematic top view of a support cylinder 200 that may beused in place of the support cylinder 30 of FIG. 1 according to oneembodiment of the disclosure. The support cylinder 200 illustrated inFIG. 2A may be disposed within a processing chamber, for example a rapidthermal processing chamber 10 shown in FIG. 1. The support cylinder 200is generally a continuous ring body with a substantially consistentradial width “W”. The support cylinder 200 has an inner peripheralsurface 202 and an outer peripheral surface 204 parallel to the innerperipheral surface 202. The outer peripheral surface 204 is further awayfrom a central longitudinal axis “C” of the support cylinder 200 thanthe inner peripheral surface 202. While not shown, the support cylinder200 is sized such that the outer peripheral surface 204 is disposedradially inward of the inner circumferential surfaces of the processingchamber, as discussed above with respect to FIG. 1.

FIG. 2B is a sectional view of the support cylinder 200 taking along theline 2B-2B of FIG. 2A. FIG. 2C is an enlarged view of a portion “2C” ofthe support cylinder 200 shown in FIG. 2B. For a 300 mm substrate, thesupport cylinder 200 may have an outer diameter “D₁” (measuring from theouter peripheral surface 204) of about 310 mm to about 360 mm, forexample about 330 mm, and an inner diameter “D₂” (measuring from theinner peripheral surface 202) of about 305 mm to about 350 mm, forexample about 324 mm. The support cylinder 200 may have a thickness “T₁”(FIG. 2B) of about 10 mm to about 80 mm, for example about 24 mm. Thesupport cylinder 200 may have a radial width (W₁) of about 2.5 mm toabout 35 mm, for example about 6 mm. In general, the dimension of theradial width (W) is selected to ensure that the support ring (i.e., thesupport ring 14 of FIG. 1) to be placed thereon does not slip off thesupport cylinder 200 when the support cylinder 200 and the support ringrotate during the process. It is contemplated that the foregoingdimensions may vary if a larger or smaller substrate and/or processingchamber are used.

In one embodiment shown in FIG. 2C, the first end 206 of the supportcylinder 200 may have a beveled surface portion 208 and a roundedsurface portion 210. The rounded surface portion 210 may have a radiusof about 0.25 mm to about 0.5 mm to reduce mechanical stress in thesupport cylinder 200. The beveled surface portion 208 connects to therounded surface portion 210 through a planar surface 212 which extendsradially from the outer peripheral surface 204 to the inner peripheralsurface 202 of the support cylinder 200. The beveled surface portion 208is sloped downwardly toward the inner peripheral surface 202 at an angle“a” of about 15° to about 40°, for example about 30°, with respect tothe inner peripheral surface 202. The planar surface 212 may have awidth “W₂” of about 0.5 mm. The planar surface 212 is configured to bein physical contact with a support ring (not shown) that supports asemiconductor substrate. Therefore, the support cylinder 200 onlycontacts the support ring with the planar surface 212 to substantiallyreduce the contact area available for conductive transfer of heatbetween the support cylinder 200 and the support ring (and therefore thesubstrate).

Similarly, the second end 214 of the support cylinder 200 may have abeveled surface portion 216 and a rounded surface portion 218. Thebeveled surface portion 216 connects to the rounded surface portion 218through a planar surface 220 which extends radially from the outerperipheral surface 204 to the inner peripheral surface 202 of thesupport cylinder 200. The beveled surface portion 216 is slopeddownwardly toward the outer peripheral surface 204 at an angle “0” ofabout 15° to about 40°, for example about 30°, with respect to the outerperipheral surface 204. The planar surface 220 is configured to coupleto a magnetic rotor (not shown), which is magnetically coupled to therotatable flange 32 (FIG. 1) to induce rotation of the magnetic rotorand hence of the support cylinder 200, the support ring and thesupported substrate about the central longitudinal axis “C” of thesupport cylinder 200.

The beveled surface portions of the support cylinder 200 may be formedusing a laser machining technique or any suitable technique. Instead ofusing the planar surface 212 to contact the support ring, the first end206 of the support cylinder 200 may be configured to provide a bump or aprojection having a limited contact area for conductive transfer of heatbetween the support cylinder 200 and the support ring to be placedthereon. The bump or projection may be any suitable shape such asrectangular, rhombus, square, hemispherical, hexagonal, or triangularprotrusions. Hemispherical-shaped bumps or projections may beadvantageous in terms of effective thermal mass reduction sincehemispherical-shaped bumps or projections further reduce the surfacecontact area between the support cylinder 200 and the support ring (andtherefore the substrate placed thereon) by turning the surface contactinto a point contact. The shape and/or dimension of the planar surface212 (or bumps/protrusions if used) may vary so long as the support ringis supported securely with minimized contact area between the substratesupport and the support cylinder 200.

In one embodiment, the support cylinder 200 is made of an opaque quartzglass material. The opaque quartz glass material may havemicroscopically small gas inclusions or voids in high concentrations tomake the support cylinder 200 opaque to radiation in the frequency rangeof the pyrometer (e.g., pyrometers 40 of FIG. 1) used for temperaturemeasurements of the substrate. The term “opaque” used herein may referto quartz glasses having an apparent density ranging from 1.7-2.2 g/cm³,an average bubble or gas inclusion diameter ranging from 10 to 100 μm,and a bubble or gas inclusion content of 6×10⁵ to 9×10⁸ bubbles/cm³. Asthe opaque quartz glass material is able to block out radiation fromexternal sources that might disturb the temperature measurements, theaccuracy of the temperature measurement of the substrate is improved. Inaddition, a support cylinder made of the opaque quartz glass materialhas higher thermal resistivity which cuts down the conduction of heatfrom the center of the support cylinder 200 to the surroundingcomponents such as the support ring. The gas inclusions or voids in theopaque quartz glass material also scatter the light trapped in thequartz to avoid the support cylinder 200 becoming a heat sink. Oneexemplary opaque quartz glass material is synthetic black quartz (SBQ),available from Heraeus Quarzglas GmbH & Co. KG, Germany. Alternatively,the opaque quartz glass material may be made with microscopic solidparticles ZrO₂ and HfO₂ in addition to, or other than those made fromgas inclusions or voids of various shapes. The synthetic black quartz isthermally insulating, dimensionally stable at high temperatures, andinherently opaque to infrared radiation in the frequency range of thepyrometer (e.g., pyrometers 40 of FIG. 1) to avoid undesirableinterference with the pyrometer signal from the substrate. Particularly,the synthetic black quartz material has low coefficient of thermalexpansion (about 5.1×10⁻⁷/° C.) so that the support cylinder 200 and thecoating layer to be formed thereon (will be discussed below) have acoefficient of thermal expansion that is substantially matched orsimilar to each other to reduce thermal expansion mismatch, which maycause thermal stress under high thermal loads. The synthetic blackquartz material also has very low impurity level. The low impurity levelas described herein refers to a highly pure black quartz where the totalcontent of metal impurities such as Na, K, Li, Al, Fe, Cu, Mg, Ca, andTi is below 5 wt ppm or less. Some of properties of the synthetic blackquartz material are provided in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Electric Thermal Thermal Dielectric resistance diffusion Heatexpansion Bending Young's constant (Ω · cm) at ratio conductivity(×10⁻⁷/° C.) Density strength modulus ε (at 500 500° C. (×10⁻⁴ m²/s)(w/(m · k)) at 500° C. (g/cm³) (N/mm²) (Gpa) MHz) 1.51 * 10¹² 0.008161.31 5.1 2.204 163 73.0 3.87

In some embodiments, the synthetic black quartz may be made by adding ablackening element or compound to a material of quartz glass. Suitablecompound may include V, Mo, Nb, C, Si, iron oxides or tungsten. Theamount of the blackening element added is not particularly limited, butis generally 0.1 to 10% by weight based on the weight of the quartzglass. In some embodiments, the synthetic black quartz may be made bythermal spraying quartz glass or black silica on a substrate such asquartz glass, metals or ceramics. The support cylinder with such a blackquartz glass thermal sprayed film formed on a substrate have excellentfar infrared radiation property as well as excellent light shieldingproperty and heat shielding property. If desired, an opaque quartz glassthermal sprayed film may be further laminated on the black quartz glassthermal sprayed film. The black quartz glass thermal sprayed filmlaminated with such an opaque quartz glass thermal sprayed film scattersinfrared rays and is impervious to visible rays, and therefore it ismore effective for heat insulation property.

In some embodiments, the opaque quartz glass material may be obtained byheating and burning a quartz glass porous body under a vacuum, under anatmospheric pressure, or under a high pressure of 0.05 MPa or higher(e.g., 1000 MPa) at high temperatures such as between about 900° C. toabout 2500° C.

Other variations of the support cylinder 200 using the synthetic blackquartz material are also contemplated. For example, the support cylinder200 may be a core body made of clear quartz, silicon carbide,silicon-impregnated silicon carbide or the like, with a coating layermade of the synthetic black quartz material as discussed above coveringmost exposed surface of the core body.

FIG. 3 depicts a schematic side view of a portion of the supportcylinder 200 shown in FIG. 2B according to another embodiment of thedisclosure. In this embodiment, the support cylinder 200 is furthercoated with an optical transparent layer, for example a clear fusedquartz material 302. The clear fused quartz material 302 may have arefractive index of about 1.5. The clear fused quartz material layer 302may have a thickness “T₂” of about 30 μm to about 200 μm, for exampleabout 100 μm. The clear fused quartz material layer 302 may cover themost exposed surfaces of the support cylinder 200 except for the beveledsurface portion 216, the planar surface 220 and the rounded surfaceportion 218, which are the locations to be coupled to a rotor or othercomponents. Alternatively, the clear fused quartz material layer 302 maycover the entire surface of the support cylinder 200. The clear fusedquartz material layer 302 is selected as it has low coefficient ofthermal expansion (about 5.5×10⁻⁷/° C.) in the relevant temperaturerange of about 300° C. to about 1450° C. The clear fused quartz materiallayer may have a purity of at least 99.9% by weight of SiO₂.

Providing a clear fused quartz material layer on the support cylinder200 that is also made of quartz material (i.e., synthetic black quartz)is advantageous because the clear fused quartz material layer 302exhibit good adhesion to the underlying synthetic black quartz material.Most importantly, the clear fused quartz material layer 302 has acoefficient of thermal expansion that is substantially matched orsimilar to the underlying synthetic black quartz material, therebyreducing or even avoiding the thermal stress on the support cylinderthat can otherwise lead to cracking in the coating and rapid partdegradation that compromises opacity and particle issues. The clearfused quartz material layer 302 also improves the emissivity of thesupport cylinder 200 in the infrared range. By increasing the emissivityof the support cylinder 200 in the infrared range, the support cylinder200 can be heated more quickly so that the support cylinder 200 does notact as a thermal load taking away heat from the support ring and becomea heat sink that might disturb the temperature measurements of thesubstrate.

For rapid thermal processing chambers that adapt a bottom heating typeconfiguration (i.e., the substrate is held with its back surface inopposition to a radiant heat source while its upper surface on which thefeatures such as integrated circuits face away from the radiant heatsource), the support cylinder may further have a reflective coatinglayer formed on or part of the clear fused quartz material layer tocontrol the temperature distribution of the support cylinder 200. FIG. 4depicts a schematic side view of a portion of the support cylinder 200shown in FIG. 3 using a reflective coating layer according to yetanother embodiment of the disclosure. It has been observed that thesupport cylinder 200 may become too hot and deform upon direct exposureto the radiant heat source, which in turn may cause the support ring andhence the supported substrate to shift horizontally. Therefore, thesubstrate temperature uniformity is undesirably affected. To prevent thesupport cylinder 200 from getting too hot, a reflective coating layer402 may be applied onto the clear fused quartz material layer 302 on theinner peripheral surface 202 facing the radiant heat source so that theheat radiation is reflected back to the heating lamps to help thesupport cylinder 200 maintain at a lower temperature during processing.The reflective coating layer 402 may cover about 20% to about 100%surface area of the inner peripheral surface 202. In various examples,the reflective coating layer 402 may cover about 25%, about 30%, about40%, about 50%, about 60%, about 70%, about 80%, about 90%, about 95%surface area of the inner peripheral surface 202. In some cases, thereflective coating layer 402 may cover the entire surface of the supportcylinder 402 to assist in heat dissipation from the support cylinder200. Such a reflective coating layer 402 may be uniform over the innerperipheral surface 202 of the support cylinder 200 as shown, or it maybe non-uniformly applied to counteract the non-uniformity of theinfrared radiation from the radiant heat source impinging on the supportcylinder 200. In either case, the reflective coating layer 402 may havea thickness “T₃” of about 20 μm to about 150 μm, for example about 60μm.

The materials selected to fabricate the reflective coating layer 402 mayhave a coefficient of thermal expansion that is substantially matched orsimilar to the intermediate clear fused quartz material layer 302 toreduce thermal expansion mismatch, which may otherwise cause thermalstress in the layer accompanied with cracking under high thermal loads.Exemplary materials that may be used for the reflective coating layer402 may include fused silica, borosilicate glass, or the like.

Although exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown anddescribed, those of ordinary skill in the art may devise otherembodiments which incorporate the present disclosure, and which are alsowithin the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the reflectivecoating layer 402 may be replaced with a heat absorptive coating layerto assist in heat dissipation from the support cylinder 200 by absorbingheat radiation from the radiant heat source and/or one or morecomponents in the processing chamber. The material of the heatabsorptive coating layer may be selected to absorb thermal radiation ata wavelength of 1 micron to 4 micron, or other wavelengths of interest.Some possible materials may include polyurethane material, carbon blackpaint or a composition including graphite.

Alternatively, instead of using the reflective coating layer 402, theintermediate clear fused quartz material layer 302 may be doped withatoms 502 (FIG. 5) which absorb radiation from the radiant heat sourceand/or one or more components in the processing chamber. The atoms 502may be evenly provided within the clear fused quartz material 302 at theinner peripheral surface 202, or over the entire clear fused quartzmaterial 302 as shown in FIG. 5. The doping may result in a more uniformtemperature profile of the support cylinder 200, if the dopants areuniformly distributed over the inner peripheral surface 202 or theentire surface of the support cylinder 200.

While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, other and further embodiments of the disclosure may bedevised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scopethereof is determined by the claims that follow.

1. A support cylinder for a thermal processing chamber, comprising: aring body having an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheralsurface parallel to the inner peripheral surface; and a planar surfaceextending radially from the outer peripheral surface to the innerperipheral surface, wherein the ring body comprises a synthetic blackquartz and the ring body is coated with an optical transparent layer.2-4. (canceled)
 5. The support cylinder of claim 1, wherein the opticaltransparent layer comprises a clear fused quartz material.
 6. Thesupport cylinder of claim 1, wherein the optical transparent layer iscoated on the inner peripheral surface.
 7. (canceled)
 8. The supportcylinder of claim 1, wherein the ring body comprises a beveled surfaceportion and a rounded surface portion, wherein the beveled surfaceportion connects to the rounded surface portion through the planarsurface.
 9. (canceled)
 10. The support cylinder of claim 8, wherein thebeveled surface portion is sloped downwardly toward the inner peripheralsurface at an angle of about 15° to about 40° with respect to the innerperipheral surface.
 11. The support cylinder of claim 8, wherein therounded surface portion has a radius of about 0.25 mm to about 0.5 mm.12. The support cylinder of claim 1, wherein the optical transparentlayer formed on the inner peripheral surface is covered by a reflectivecoating layer. 13-14. (canceled)
 15. A method of processing a ring bodyused in a thermal processing chamber, comprising: forming a ring bodycomprising a synthetic black quartz, wherein the ring body has an innerperipheral surface, an outer peripheral surface, and a planar surfaceextending radially from the outer peripheral surface to the innerperipheral surface; and coating at least a portion of the ring body witha clear fused quartz material having a refractive index of about 1.5.16-17. (canceled)
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the clear fusedquartz material is coated on the inner peripheral surface.
 19. Themethod of claim 15, further comprising: forming a reflective coatinglayer covering the clear fused quartz material formed on the innerperipheral surface.
 20. (canceled)
 21. The support cylinder of claim 1,wherein the synthetic black quartz comprises V, Mo, Nb, C, Si, ironoxides or tungsten.
 22. The method of claim 15, wherein the syntheticblack quartz is formed by adding a blackening element or compound to amaterial of quartz glass, and the blackening element or compoundcomprises V, Mo, Nb, C, Si, iron oxides or tungsten.
 23. The method ofclaim 22, wherein the added amount of the blackening element or compoundis about 0.1 to 10% by weight based on the weight of the quartz glass.24. A support cylinder for a thermal processing chamber, comprising: aring body having an inner peripheral surface, an outer peripheralsurface, a planar surface extending radially from the inner peripheralsurface to the outer peripheral surface, wherein the ring body comprisesa synthetic black quartz, and the ring body is coated with a layer ofclear fused quartz material.
 25. The support cylinder of claim 24,wherein the layer of clear fused quartz material is coated on the innerperipheral surface.
 26. The support cylinder of claim 24, wherein thelayer of clear fused quartz material is coated on exposed surface of theentire ring body.
 27. The support cylinder of claim 26, wherein thesynthetic black quartz comprises V, Mo, Nb, C, Si, iron oxides ortungsten.
 28. The support cylinder of claim 26, wherein the layer ofclear fused quartz material formed on the inner peripheral surface iscovered by a reflective coating layer.
 29. The support cylinder of claim26, wherein the layer of clear fused quartz material comprises dopantsthat absorb thermal radiation.
 30. The support cylinder of claim 29,wherein the dopants are evenly provided within the clear fused quartzmaterial at the inner peripheral surface or over the entire clear fusedquartz material.